Welcome to the Summarin - your weekly dose of commentary and summaries of the most interesting topics from the world of culture, media and commerce. If you are new around here and like what you read, hit the subscribe button below.
On today’s edition (21.5.22):
TikTok domination
Snap and creators
A primer on web3
Read and listen:
TikTok And The Rest
I don’t understand TikTok. OK, that’s not correct - I understand the concept but I cannot make myself use the app. It hasn’t been for lack of trying. There have been a few attempts. I download the app, open, sign in, and I scroll through a few videos. After a few minutes I close it and ask myself why am I doing this. This is my journey. The app leaves me confused. Perhaps I haven’t given enough data to the algorithm to reap the benefits that so many users have. But I have no patience. The format doesn’t speak to me and it feels like I am in a foreign country, and I have no comprehension of what is being said to me.
The reality, however, is that TikTok has done something remarkable and has captivated the attention of a demographic who are able to spend ours locked into the app. The statistics which come from ByteDance, the parent company, are staggering and show a total domination on the market for attention. On top of that, the business model - where a creator and consumer are the same person, is one of the most cost effective when you compare it to what other platforms and content studios (such as Disney or Netflix) spend. That’s huge power.
A very aggressive push for original content that targets a broader audience is also noticeable. This week I have been fortunate to be in Cannes during the Film Festival and TikTok is the official streaming partner of the event. A tie-in with the glitz and glamour, the appeal of the old money world and cultural heritage that emanates from an institution as big as the Cannes Film Festival is a move clearly positioned to place the company in the space, often dominated by big movie studios or TV networks. So, it will not be at all unreasonable to foresee a future where TikTok starts making its own movies and shows, or just by being around - becomes the platform of choice upon which to launch large-scale projects that can benefit from one of the most engaged audiences out there.
TikTok Boom (No Mercy/No Malice)
“We’ve been watching the streaming wars for the past few years, but we were looking in the wrong place.”
Classifying TikTok as a social media app places it in a leading position in the category - the company is now bigger than LInkedIn, Snapchat and Twitter combined. But perhaps, we’ve been looking in the wrong direction? Position TikTok as a video streaming company and all of a sudden it emerges as a dominant player in the field who controls the attention of youths and has created a model where content creators and consumers are the same person. Read story
“For it being such a simple app, there’s a little bit of confusion on how to get yourself out there on Snapchat.”
Speaking of TikTok, one of its competitors is Snapchat. The parent company, Snap, keeps reporting rising active user numbers but for creatives who want to participate on the platform it is still unclear what the road to success is. There’s the challenge of education - how to use the platform, restrictions on advertising content in some of the app’s popular formats and the fact that the content creators who are trying to break through are coming with their know-how accumulated on TikTok or Instagram - and they work differently. Read story
Paradise at the Crypto Arcade: Inside the Web3 Revolution (Wired)
“The term Web3, as you may or may not have noticed, emerged from obscurity last year, buoyed by rising cryptocurrency prices and some canny marketing by venture capitalists.”
A primer on web3 from Wired. This is a long but fun read that provides the reader with a comprehensive look at the crypto space and the various trends that have emerged and captivated the attention of people, especially the marketing-skewed tribes. If you want to dive deeper into the philosophy behind movements such as Decentralized Finance (DeFi), NFTs and the narrative positioning web3 as an alternative to centralized services, read on. Read story
Tweets
That’s all for this week. Have a good week(end)
Your choice,
Marin